'King Neil' is footy's Mr 66.7

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GIVEN that Dick Reynolds coached Essendon for
22 years and Neil Craig has been in the caper for
just over a year the Adelaide coach would probably be embarrassed
to be compared with him. We are, however, going to do that today,
if only in statistical sense, for the simple reason that we have
stumbled across a stat which, if nothing else, illustrates the
profound impact the one-time Crows fitness coach has had on his
team since he took over from Gary Ayres in round
14 last year.

As students of the game will tell you "King Richard" is the
"winningest" coach in league history (of all the 200-game-plus
big-name coaches), his 275 victories from 415 games giving him an
incredible winning percentage of 67.0 per cent. But how's this
 having started his career with just four wins from nine
games last year, the Crows' 18 wins from 24 games this year has not
only taken Craig's winning percentage to 66.7 per cent but a win
over West Coast in Saturday's preliminary final will increase it to
68.0, surpassing Reynolds.

Mind you, it's not just Craig who is poised to make a finals
impact on the AFL's book of numbers. With the four preliminary
final coaches  Craig, Grant Thomas, Paul
Roos and John Worsfold  having
coached just 306 AFL games between them, not one of them has made
it to a grand final (as a coach) let alone win one.

But it's Thomas who should feel particularly proud as he leads
his Saints into battle against Sydney on Friday night, for it will
be his 100th game as their coach, becoming just the third person,
behind Allan Jeans and Stan
Alves, to have reached the milestone at St Kilda.

All of which proves just how hard it is to hold down a coaching
job at St Kilda, especially when you consider that clubs such as
Carlton has had seven 100-game coaches and Geelong and Richmond
have had six each.

Bombing out

AND on the subject of "winningest" coaches, one bloke who we're
tipping has been checking his numbers as the season draws to an end
is Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy. He keeps such a close tab on
his career record that he once ticked off an AFL staffer because
the official media guide of the year listed him with 40 more losses
than he really had. Well, Sheedy certainly won't be happy with what
the Bombers' 14 losses in 2005 (his worst ever) have done to his
winning percentage ratio. Having reached a career high of 66.09 in
2001 (just 0.9 behind Reynolds) by the end of last year it had
dropped to 64.67 and is now down to 63.63.

Oh those one percenters

BUT IF Sheedy is disappointed about that we reckon Carlton coach
Denis Pagan has reason to feel decidedly sick about what has
happened to his winning percentage since joining Carlton in 2003.
When he left the Kangaroos it stood at 63 per cent but just 18 wins
from 66 games with the Blues have seen it drop to 54.9.

History says Crows

FINALS history will mean nothing to the four preliminary final
teams although Adelaide will be buoyed by the fact that it has
played West Coast twice and won both of them, although both games
were played at Football Park and this weekend's match is in Perth.
Likewise St Kilda will be happy to know it has beaten Sydney/South
Melbourne on three of the four occasions they have met in finals
over the years.

3AW hits back

TRIPLE M may have had a dominant season in football broadcasting
but 3AW will be buoyed by its strong finish to the season following
the release yesterday of the latest official Nielsen ratings
figures. The Rex Hunt-led team won two of the four
timeslots, on Saturday night and Sunday with Triple M easily
winning Saturday afternoons and the ABC's 774 taking out Friday
nights, although the ABC's figures are clouded in that two of the
five night periods included the coverage of the Ashes Test
series.

Playing it by the book

THE less said about the cricket the better, we reckon, although
we were intrigued by elements of Richie Benaud's
farewell to English cricket, in particular the fact that betting
agency Betfair conducted a book on what would be his final words.
And so popular was it that not only was $20,000 wagered but Benaud
said he was even phoned at 4am from Bangalore during the match to
ask what those words would be.

In the end, "it's been a privilege" started at 4-1 (shortening
from 16-1) a simple "goodbye" was 3-1 and "thank you" 5-1. Benaud's
last words were "goodbye and thanks for having me, best of all,
it's been a lot of fun" before retiring to the back of the box.
Asked why he did not wish to commentate on the closing overs, he
said: "There is a roster every day and that is it. Steady on." A
charity of Benaud's choice is to receive Betfair's commission on
the book.

Where is everyone?

THE English tabloids of course went gangbusters in their coverage
of the Ashes win (and it hasn't finished yet) but even the
respected broadsheets pulled out of few tricks of their own
including The Guardian, which sent a Melbourne correspondent
out to Black Rock, Shane Warne territory, on Monday night so see
how the locals were coping with it all. The reporter lobbed there
just before midnight and surprise, surprise, the paper reported
"not a soul was on the streets" as England was heading for an Ashes
victory. According to The Guardian the Beaumaris Pavilion,
the nearest pub to Warne's childhood home, was in darkness, having
closed its doors at 11pm although the paper said The Sandy up the
road was still serving "but its inhabitants were more interested in
slot machines than in watching their national team lose".

Oh well, it sounded like a good story idea at the time.

Medal man Jeremy

MAGAREY medals don't usually come under our radar but it's a
different story when it is won by a Victorian. Port Adelaide
Magpies rover Jeremy Clayton who took out the South
Australian National Football League's top individual honour on
Monday night is a former Kangaroo, who is building quite a
collection of best and fairests. In the VFL he won two at Port
Melbourne and two at North Ballarat and also won two of them for
North Ballarat Rebels in the TAC Cup. And let's not forget that in
the 2003 J.J. Liston Trophy at one point he led the voting but was
ineligible due to suspension. Further bad luck this time too 
when announced as the Magarey winner he was laid up in hospital
with a ruptured spleen suffered during Port's qualifying win over
Woodville-West Torrens last weekend.

Who said that?

"URNcredible" "FantASHtic"- London's MIRROR and The SUN headlines on
England reclaiming the Ashes.